Wolves journalist has a story to tell
Ron Warrilow covered Wolves as a journalist for some 55 years.
The first manager he worked with was Stan Cullis and the last Kenny Jackett.
He also covered Albion for 50 years and, as a respected doyen of the Midlands media patch, worked on news, and in particular court cases, for almost 60. Now that’s longevity.
Warrilow covered hearings at Stafford Assizes when guilty defendants were sentenced to death. He grilled iconic film stars such as Charlton Heston. He once interviewed Prince William of Gloucester, then ninth in line to the throne, minutes before he took part in an airshow race at Halfpenny Green during which his plane crashed, and he died.
He also once got locked in Banks’ Brewery after a press trip and had to escape by building a wall of beer crates. And his famed ‘Tarzan’ phone ringtone once went off when a judge was delivering a verdict in Crown Court and, perhaps more dangerously, during a Mick McCarthy press conference.
For someone who had his words about football read by millions thanks to his freelance commitments with so many national dailies and Sunday newspapers, there has also always been a large extent to which home is where the heart is. He admits he has ‘gold and black coursing through my veins’, but also, unlike most of that persuasion, counts Albion as his ‘second team’. His was a career packed with hard work and determination, but also plenty of fun.
Warrilow, who lives in Sedgley, turns 80 today, a landmark celebration, and one which provides an opportune moment to look back on his decades in the trade.
“I will always be thankful for having the most wonderful career for which I feel very blessed,” is the Warrilow summing-up. Concise and evocative. Ever the professional.
“I have covered so many brilliant football matches, and met so many great people not only in sport but across showbusiness with film stars and others from stage and screen,” he continues.
“There are so many highlights, too many to mention, and I have seen so many changes.
“And I made so many friends, both from the local area and nationally when people came to Molineux or The Hawthorns to cover games.
“I feel I have been very fortunate.”
What a career. What a story. ‘Crackerjack’, you might say. The Warrilow catchline when it comes to showing his approval.
And so, to the age-old question, how did it all begin?
With a job advert in the Express & Star, no less!
‘Wanted: Young person to train as journalist’, read the notice from Bayliss’s News and Sport Agency.
That was music to the ears of the young Warrilow, who had completed his O levels at Dudley Grammar School, but wasn’t too enamoured with the prospect of following up with A levels.
Eight aspiring hopefuls were handed the assignment of heading to Molineux on the following Saturday afternoon to produce a 250-word report on the reserve game between, ironically, Wolves and Albion.
On the Sunday, Warrilow received a phone call to say the job was his. On the Monday, he went into school and, despite his headmaster’s protestations, he said he was leaving. On the Tuesday, he enjoyed a day off. And on the Wednesday, he started work. Craig David, eat your heart out.
And so, off he went. While quickly learning ‘on the job’ from more-experienced colleagues, Warrilow taught himself how to type – you could take a typewriter into the Wolves press box back in those days – and studied Pitman shorthand before eventually honing that system to suit his own style.
